


Enemies Closer

by SofterLips



Category: WordGirl (Cartoon)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28002534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SofterLips/pseuds/SofterLips
Summary: “Oh! But that’s right. You don’t have a real family, do you Beckface?”Tobey's done this song and dance before- the least he can do is be there for Becky.
Relationships: Becky Botsford | WordGirl/Theodore "Tobey" McCallister III
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	Enemies Closer

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. This is inspired by the lovely art from leviprime on Tumblr. Here is the link. Give them some love.  
> https://leviprime.tumblr.com/post/170482221384/keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer

No one would have pegged biology for Tobey’s favorite class- until you understood a few things. Firstly, everyone knew Dr. van Braun was overqualified and bored to tears. He didn’t seem to have a grasp on what exactly a 9th grader should or shouldn’t know about the biological workings of the world around them. He didn’t seem to particularly care either- he would hand out worksheets, or lab materials, and tell them ‘Get on with it now.’ Then he’d drink coffee in a lukewarm trance until the bell rang. It was a class for those who thrived in chaos; if your work was in on time and you didn’t break the coffee trance, you could do whatever you wanted. Perfect conditions for a bored boy genius.

Secondly, Becky Botsford was in his biology class. He wasn’t sure if they were really friends, but they were friendly and Tobey still believed in his heart of hearts that she was Word Girl and hadn’t completely given up on the idea that she would tell him the truth one day. Besides, even if she wasn’t WordGirl, she was fiercely intelligent and oh so beautiful. He sat behind her, so as not to draw suspicion when he got lost in her dark locks of hair on the rare days van Braun decided to lecture.

Dr. van Braun stood up from his desk and began to pass out papers. All of the papers were distributed in stacks to the people at the front of each row, before they took one and passed it back. Van Braun took the time to then begin passing around materials from a small basket. Becky turned to him with a smile and handed him the stack.

“Ah my dear. What gifts you give,” he said, only low enough for her to hear.

Becky choked on a snort and rolled her eyes at him with a smile. Violet raised a brow from her right side and she shook her head.

Success.

Van Braun called out ‘Get on with it now’, and Tobey looked over the worksheet and the materials he’d been given. A Punnett square was lopsidedly copied in grayscale onto the top half, and a ‘results’ section with fill in the blank sentences were typed on the bottom. He’d been given a vial of fake blood, and some coagulating agents and apparently, he was supposed to determine the possible parentage of the person whose ‘blood’ was in the vial. Fine. This would take about 12 minutes and then the rest of class he’d have time to work on the schematics for the new hoverbike prototype his mother had forbidden him from so much as thinking about. Ever since the matronly warning, he’d been absolutely not thinking about it. Feverishly. He was also not feverishly thinking about whether someone who may or may not have superpowers would think it was cool.

He looked at the back of her glossy head.

Becky was reading the directions on how to accurately determine blood type aloud to both Violet and Scoops, though Tobey could tell there were other eavesdroppers. Somehow, things made more sense when Becky read them aloud.

“Could you keep it down? I’m the best at figuring out Punnett squares,”

Oh, sweet Tesla. Victoria’s voice was so grating.

“Really. Is it a hobby of yours? Win awards for it?” asked Becky.

Tobey smiled. He wrote his name at the top of his paper and began pouring fake blood into fake coagulation agent. Since the beginning of Jr. High, Becky had started being a bit more obvious about her disdain for Victoria Best.

After her stint pretending to be Word Girl and disgruntling every villain in the city, most of the respect he’d had for Victoria had fizzled. (It hadn’t been a lot to begin with). It was not a secret that any respect Becky had for Victoria in grade school had died a swift and unkind death around the same time.

“As a matter of fact, my whole family bloodline is the best bloodline. We have a pedigree that every Best knows, because we can trace our lineage back to Charlemagne,” she stuck her little nose up in the air. “How far can you trace your family back Beckface?”

He could hear Becky roll her eyes. He smirked.

“It’s Becky, not Beckface. And, honestly, I don’t know Victoria, I don’t really sit around thinking about random things to gloat-,”

“Oh! But that’s right. You don’t have a real family, do you Beckface?”

Tobey’s head shot up to look at Victoria’s smug face. He made a mental note to slash every tire her father owned. He turned back to see that Becky had frozen- not a hair twitched. But her friends were livid.

“What are you talking about Victoria? I love Becky’s mom!” said Scoops.

“That is an awful thing to say to someone,” added Violet.

“What do you mean? I’m the best at being honest- she’d never be able to trace her parentage with a Punnett square because she was adopted. For all she knows her parents were nobodies who dropped her on a doorstep,”

Becky hadn’t moved, and Tobey had never seen Violet so angry. Tobey wasn’t sure whether Scoops was going to have to physically restrain her, of if he would even be successful in doing so.

Tobey had done the whole song and dance of being bullied because he didn’t have a dad. It was old, and it didn’t really hurt anymore. He always knew that if they knew who his dad was, or why he wasn’t around, they’d probably think twice about cracking jokes. It was best they didn't know.

But he remembered how it used to hurt, and he knew empathy and sympathy were generally good qualities in a potential friend, so he gently tapped Becky’s shoulder.

“Would you accompany me to the nurse’s office? I feel terribly ill,” he said.

He saw her jerk her head, and he walked to the front of the room to tell Dr. van Braun. The good doctor blinked, nodded, and wrote a pass. Becky walked out the door with him without acknowledging her friends or the further baiting of Victoria- “Going somewhere Beckface? Forgot to finish your Punnett square!”

The door thudded shut.

Tobey began walking toward the nurse’s office, and he took the time to look at Becky. She had tears in her eyes and frozen features. Tobey gently tapped her arm and led her into an empty classroom. He sat on one of the desks and took a breath.

Tobey said, “Look. I may not be the person you want to see or talk to right now, but I wanted you to know, I kind of get it,” He looked up from her shoes and into her face, and she looked right back into his eyes. It made his heart rate and breathing do twitchy things, so he looked away. “I never really knew my father. I know he wore glasses and he’s where I get the vestiges of my accent. But, he was distant when I was an infant, and when I was very young he…left. I don’t know what it’s like to be adopted, but I do know what it’s like to be different in that regard, and if you ever want to, erm, well, talk. Though, I doubt you’d want to talk, with, uh, me. But-,” he was saved from his logorrhea.

Becky had collapsed into his shoulder and begun to cry.

* * *

She was staring at Victoria. She'd seen her mouth move, but she couldn’t believe what she was hearing- couldn’t believe how the words had made the lunch in her stomach turn to lead and the blood in her veins prick like ice. She knew how powerful words were. She knew and she was still shocked. It was so unexpected.

“Oh! But that’s right. You don’t have a real family, do you Beckface?”

She could vaguely hear Violet and Scoops defending her and her family. But there was a ringing in her head that was drowning out their words. She loved her family- she did- but she didn’t look like her mom or dad. T.J. had their dad's face and their mom's hair.

All of the traits about herself she treasured- her super strength, her speed, her linguistic abilities- they weren’t because of the Botsfords. They were because someone, millions and millions of miles away had those traits and passed them down to her. She would never know if she had her mother’s hair or her father’s eyes. And it wasn’t as though she hadn’t thought these things before late at night, crying silently and so, so still because she didn’t want to wake Bob…

But to hear them. The words, spoken aloud, spoken into existence to stand tall and ugly in her brain.

“I’m the best at being honest- she’d never be able to trace her parentage with a Punnett square because she was adopted. For all she knows her parents were nobodies who dropped her on a doorstep,”a flick of a braid, and pert little nose up in the air, and Becky was having trouble breathing.

Tobey was talking to her, telling her he wanted to walk with her to the nurse. She didn’t know if she looked ill or if he was trying to get her away from Victoria but she appreciated the effort. She followed him in a daze.

She realized she appreciated a lot of things about Tobey these days.

She appreciated how he didn’t go off tearing the city apart with giant robots. She appreciated how he wasn’t afraid of what anyone thought of him, how sometimes he’d wear nail polish or mascara because he felt fancy that day. She appreciated how he would go out of his way to make her laugh. She appreciated that he stopped trying to expose her as Word Girl. She appreciated how he stopped flirting with Word Girl, and how he’d started almost-flirting with Becky. She also appreciated now, when he didn’t actually take her to the nurse and took her instead to an empty classroom. She appreciated that he told her those things about his dad, and that he didn’t drop her like a hot skillet when she fell forward into his arms to cry.

And cry she did. 

She was not cognizant of time passing, or the space outside of Tobey’s arms. Crying into Tobey’s arms was kind of nice, though she was embarrassed to hear herself sob and hiccup. He had placed a gentle hand on the back of her head, and he smelled like laundry and boy-deodorant. Not the gross kind Scoops had worn for a month before Violet told him point blank to either throw it away or buy her a mask so she wouldn’t have to smell it.

She cried for a while.

For the parents she’d never know and for the parents she knew and loved but would never be truly enough. She pulled back to wipe her nose on the inside of her sleeve, because she drew the line at snotting on his sweater vest. She looked at Tobey, and he looked sympathetic. He looked like he understood, and suddenly, she wanted him to understand more.

“Tobey,” she said- her voice scratchy.

“Yes?” he answered, matching her volume. He had let her go, but she stayed close.

“Victoria was right,” He seemed to reel at that- but opened his mouth to argue. She shook her head and pressed a hand to his mouth.

“In a sense- yes, Victoria was right. I won’t ever know my real parents…but it goes deeper than that,” she said. “I won’t ever know who I am, who my people were, what my culture is like,” she gave a watery sigh, and looked to the door. She removed her hand, and walked over and pulled the shade to cover the window in the door, “because you were right”

“Word up!”

And there she stood- tear tracks on her face, her star emblem blazing. 

Tobey looked amazed for several seconds, then he looked sad enough to cry himself.

“I’d rather have been wrong, if it meant you didn’t feel so alone,” Becky changed back in a flash of power and light and launched herself back at Tobey. He grunted, and had to pinwheel to keep standing up, but when he’d regained his balance, he held her again just as tightly- one hand in her hair, cradling the back of her head. Enemies, or friends, or something in between, he would keep her close.


End file.
